Pipe-coupling.



0. P. HIGGINS.

PIPE COUPLING. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 2. 1906.

Patented Dec. 6, 1910.

a SHEETS-BHIIET i. I

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PIP 0 IN APPLIUATIO ED AUG. 2, 1906.

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ATTORNEY Patented D 1910.

G. P. HIGGINS. PIPE COUPLING. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 2. 1906.

Patented Dec. 6,1910. I

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 cup shape, with its closed end of hemiother branch any desired angle.

in Fig. 4. Av plug or plunger hereinafter UNITED sTATEs P rn CAMPBELL P. HIGGINS, OF ROSELLE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNQR TO THE BABCOCK & WILCOX COMPANY, OF BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

.IPIPEI-COUPLING.

Application filed August 2,

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, CAMPBELL P. HIGGINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Roselle, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pipe-Couplings, of which the following is a specification, reference being bad therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to a seamless branched pipe coupling made integral of wrought metal and the invention. consists in a seamless blank. comprising a spherical body portion and a projecting neck from which body portion .one or more branches or necks may be projected at any desired angle.

The invention alsoconsists in' the process of making the same as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the following description of the process of forming the blank and completing the. coupling, reference is made to the accompanying drawings showing the product of the successive steps of the process of forming the blank and the succeeding opera tions in producing therefrom various patterns of a complete coupling, the respective views, Figs. 1 to 12, being referred to incidental with the related descriptive matter as follows A disk of metal (Fig. 1) is formed into spherical form, as shown in Fig. 2. The open end is then contracted and drawn out for one pipe connection leaving the body or shell of the blank in spherical form, as shown in Fig. 3. These operations complete the processof forming the blank. Fro-1n this blank a coupling may be completed with pipe connections projecting from the spherical port-ion of the blank at a In formin the additional pipe connections integra with the spherical portion of the blank, such operation is effected by making a perforation-throughthe body or shell at any desired point, a point opposite the neck on the blank being shown, for example,

referred to may then be passed within the shell and forced through the perforation, forming a surrounding'flange and ."drawing Specification of Letters Patent.

out an additional neck, as shown, for ex-" Patented Dec. 6, 1910.

1906. Serial No. 328,837.

ample, in Fig. A perforation may also be made through the shell at a right angle with the necks already formed, as shown in Fig. 6, and the plug or plunger forced therethrough to form a branch or additional neck, as shown in Fig. 7, the coupling at this stage of its manufacture being in the form of a tee. v

In the product shown in Fig. 3 perforationsmay be made for forming necks diverging from the shell at any desired angle to produce thevarious forms of couplings, such as tees Ys, elbows, etc., as shown, for example, in Figs. 8, 9, 10 and 11.

It will be readily understood that the necks are intended for a pipe or other connection and may be threaded for a pipe attachment or a flange, for illustration, as shown in Fig. 12.

The means that may be employed for producing the blank are obvious to metal workers, the circular blank, Fig. 1, being sub,- 'jected to a die block and plunger and formed consists in a spherical body part with a projecting neck. In completing a coupling the spherical body of the blank is perforated at any'point where it is desired that a branched duce the blank form shown in Fig. 3, which neck be formed either as shown in Figs. 4

or 6, or at other desired angles, as shown,

for example, in Fig. 10. v

The special devices employed in forming or drawing out a neck integral with the spherical body at an angle to the longitudi-- nal axis of the coupling as shown at Figs. 7 9 or 10, are illustrated in Figs. 13, 1 k and 15 in the accompanying drawings and comprise an hydraulic ram A operating in the cylinder B and carrying a supporting former D. Aguiding stationary bolt or plunger 0 is secured to the cylinder B and provided with a removable head or plug E. As shown in .Fig. 13 the perforated heated blank from which the neck is to be formed is placed over the end of the bolt C and the head or plug E (shown in dotted lines) is introduced through the neck of the spherical blank. The water is then exhausted from cylinder B and the plug and heated blank are rotated and which brings the parts to the position shown in Fig. 14. As shown in Fig. 14 pressure is then applied to cylinder I B which elevates the ram A and die D and coupling having an open body portion of cylindrical form and one or morebranches or projecting necks formed integral and at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the coupling, is not new, but I am not aware that a seamless blank has heretofore been made of wrought metal having a body portion of spherical form with an integral projecting neck and from such spherical body portion one or 'more branches or projecting necks I may be formed at any deslred angle from ghe longitudinal axis of the blank; thereore,

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is 1. The herein described article comprising a seamless spherical shell of wrought metal having an integral neck projecting therefrom and from which other necks may be drawn at varying angles and of varying diameters. V

2. The herein described article comprising a seamless spherical shell of wrought metal having an integral projecting neck, and one or more pipe connections drawn from said shell at any desired'angle.

3. The herein described process of making a seamless blank of wrought metal for the manufacture of pipe couplings which consists in forming a circular blank into a hemispherical cup shape, and then contracting the open end to form a spherical body portion and a projecting neck integral therewith.

4. The herein described process of making pipe couplings which consists in forming a circular blank into a hemispherical cup shape, and then contracting the open end to form a spherical body portlon and a projecting neck integraltherewith, and then forcing or drawing out additional necks at any desired angle integral with said body portion.

' CAMPBELL P. HIGGINS. Witnesses H. S. CHiNNOGK, Jr., H. E. VOORHIS. 

